(1) Technical Field
This invention relates generally to an apparatus used in a semiconductor manufacturing process for effectively collecting unwanted by-products in the exhaust gases of a low pressure chemical vapor deposition film fabrication process.
(2) Description of Prior Art
The following four U.S. Patents relate to cold traps for reducing source material from a reaction chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,24,793b1 issued Jun. 5, 2001, to Jui-Hsiung Lee et al. disclosing a cold trap with a curvilinear cooling plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,198 issued Aug. 22, 2000, to Wei-Farn Lin discloses an apparatus and method for reducing process solid buildup by using an exhaust circuit of cold traps and heating and cooling elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,272 issued Dec. 26, 2000, to Wei-Jen Lin et al. discloses an apparatus for preventing contamination to a LPCVD chamber by using a valved exhaust vent connected to a vacuum pump.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,139,640 issued Oct. 31, 2000, to Jesse C. Ramos et al. describing a LPCVD system utilizing a mass flow rate controller for gases passing from a reaction chamber to a vacuum pump.
LPCVD is a method used to deposit thin films on semiconductor substrates. Silicon nitride is one film that is used extensively as a mask for diffusion, passivation or a gate dielectric in memory devices. Silicon nitride is usually formed by the LPCVD method in deposition equipment similar to the one shown in FIG. 1. (Prior Art.)
The LPCVD method typically uses dichlorosilane as the reactant gas with ammonia is a hot-wall LPCVD vertical furnace unit 10 at a temp. 700xc2x0 C. -800xc2x0 C. with a chamber pressure of several hundred m Torr. During the silicon nitride deposition using the method described above, a reaction by-product is formed. This by-product is usually ammonium chloride in the form of a fine powder. This powder deposited on any cold surface in the ducting of the LPCVD system or may be siphoned back into the reaction chamber during the film deposition process. The results of the above are that the ducting of the system requires frequent maintenance for cleaning the residue, more importantly it increased the defect density of the product which in turn will reduce the product yield of the process.
A method for reducing the effects of the ammonium chloride powder is to include a cold trap in the LPCVD system that provides an internal cold surface area for the ammonium chloride powder to condense on FIG. 1 is a schematic of typical LPCVD systems. The typical system includes a LPCVD reactor 10 which has an exhaust outlet 14, a main pressure valve 23, a cold trap 11, and a main vacuum pump 21. During the deposition of the silicon nitride film on semiconductor wafers positioned in the furnace 10, the furnace exhaust gas 20, which contains unreacted gases, and the reaction by-product ammonium chloride powder is sent through a cold trap 11 and then released to the factory exhaust system 22. The ability and efficiency of the cold trap 11 is an important feature of the system as it affects the defect density of the process and, thereby, product yield and the frequency of maintenance.
A cross-sectional view of a conventional cold trap is shown in FIG. 2 (Prior Art).
The cold trap is normally constructed of a cylindrical housing 20 with gas inlet and outlet ports 22, 24 arranged as shown in FIG. 2. The housing also supports a cooling plate 34. The cooling plate is comprised of hollow fins that contain a cooling fluid which circulates through the fins. Cooling fluid lines are also provided and supported by the cold trap housing. The cooling fins provide a large cold surface for the deposition and collection of the ammonium chloride powder. The action prevents the ammonium chloride powder from backstreaming into the reaction chamber and producing defects on the product wafers. In the present configuration of cold traps shown in FIG. 2 the cold trap requires cleaning of the ammonium chloride powder from the internal surfaces after every 20-25 hours of operation. The requirement for cleaning requires system downtime.
The present invention objective is to provide a cold trap that can be used in a semiconductor fabrication process for collecting unwanted particles more effectively than current cold traps are capable of doing.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a cold trap that can be used in a semiconductor material deposition system which by its use increases the time between cleaning cycles, therefore decreasing system downtime.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a cold trap with increased cooled surface area for the deposition of unwanted particles.
An additional objective of the present invention is to provide a gas deflecting plate that directs the gas over a second set of cooling fins to allow for a larger area for deposition of unwanted particles.
A further objective of the invention is to provide a second set of cooling fins so shaped as to provide additional cold surface area for deposition of unwanted particles.
It is also the objective of the invention to provide cooling fins so shaped as to minimize the impedance to gas flow.
The above objectives are achieved by the present invention by providing a double acting cold trap that incorporates a cylindrical housing with exhaust gas inlet and outlet ports arranged at 90xc2x0. Internal to the cylindrical housing are a set of condensing fins and a set of condensing plates. A deflecting plate is incorporated between the condensing fins and condensing plates that directs the exhaust gases in a serial fashion over the condensing surfaces. Input and output fittings for the cooling fluid are incorporated on the stainless steel housing and the fluid loop is so arranged as to provide fluid to the condensing fins and condensing plates in a closed circulating loop.